Got a Letter from Pantene Beautiful Lengths

I was starting to wonder whether the salon had actually sent out my hair donation since I hadn't gotten my letter of acknowledgement from Pantene yet. Well it finally arrived today and I'm happy to know that my donation will be going to someone who's having a hard time. I highly encourage anyone who qualifies to do this; it feels great!

Another kind of crafty project

A couple of months ago we cleaned out my grandpa's apartment when he moved into a nursing home. In his closet I found these old chairs that used to be a part of my aunt and uncle's restaurant yeeeears ago. I really like the lines of the chair and decided rather than selling or donating them that I'd try to give them a new life.

Originally I was envisioning a silver chair with a cool fabric covering the nasty, old, red plastic-y seat. But when I got the chairs home I realized that I didn't really have a good spot in the house for them. Someone (maybe Willy?) suggested I put them out on our back deck instead. We'd been looking for a couple of chairs and a small table for that area anyway, so that was the new plan for their home.

But silver chairs wouldn't really work for an outdoor patio style, so I decided to paint them brown instead and find a colorful, canvas-y fabric for outdoors. After removing the cushion (it was held from underneath with a few brackets that were easy to spin out of place and release the seat), I sanded everything down. That took a loooooong time, several hours for the first one and then I got lazy with the second one and only spent half as long on it :P. I really didn't need to sand it as much as I did since I wasn't planning on staining it but I just got tunnel vision I think. Certainly didn't hurt the chair, just my tired fingers and legs!

Given my current employment situation I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I got creative in acquiring the paint and fabric supplies I needed. On one of my local Freecycle boards someone had posted about a free paint shed at a nearby town's recycling center; anyone can pick up free paint there. Cool, huh? So I found a small can of brown enamel paint there and even got a great tinted primer. The color turned out much more matte than I had originally envisioned, but did I mention it was FREE? So, yeah, I'm cool with it.

I also suck at painting. I started out trying to use a mini roller on the flattest parts and a brush on all the other sections but the roller wasn't very useful and I always seem to load it with too much paint. So after the first coat dried I had a bunch of drippy paint sections that I had to sand down again before putting on the second coat. I also missed a few spots during the first coat so, yeah, I suck at painting. Somehow I managed to work it out for the most part.

As for the seat, I hit the remnant bin at Joann's Fabrics and scored with a yard of summery-colored, striped, canvas-type fabric. Not only was it in the remnant bin, it was 50% off that day and one yard was more than enough for the two chairs I was working on. Total cost, about $4. Score!

I borrowed a staple gun from my family and started recovering the cushions. Can you see how the old red plastic was held down by individual little nails? They were tiny, like 1/8" long and some of them started to pop out as the staple gun fired. You can also see some of the nasty black, kinda greasy crap that was on the underside, probably from having been in a Chinese restaurant for all those years. My mom helped me with the first cushion and then I did the second one on my own.

I got the two chairs done just in time for Willy's BBQ birthday party so we put them out for a trial run. No one fell through the chair, got paint on them, or had any other disasters so I guess the job got done :) Here's the final product and a side-by-side before and after (or after and before?) comparison:

It was a fun project, and besides some elbow grease the only cost was the $4 for fabric. Can't really beat that!

We have at least semi-green thumbs

I can finally put some weight on my ankle today and took a quick walk around part of our yard to check on the plants. Everything is at least peeking out of the ground and we've got a lot of flowering and budding on the plants. Take a look at all the new leaves on the Asian Pear tree! Yes, I am ridiculously excited about this. I always half expect to kill any plants that come home with me, so if they thrive I'm often really surprised and happy.

The relocated dogwood tree seems to be doing well too, with a bunch of new leaves/buds of its own. Let's hope this keeps up. It'd be nice to show Willy's mom (the lady with the Master's degree in horticulture!) that we can grow some stuff!

And here are some shots of random other things growing around our house, indoors and outdoors. Note that the white orchid grows like it's on steroids. It was a housewarming gift from my cousin a couple of years ago and started out with just one flowering branch and is now up to three flowering branches with a total of about 15-16 open flowers right now. I swear it's not anything special I'm doing but, hey, I'll show it off happily (though I'm not a very good photographer so the pics don't really do it justice). And the seedlings in the terra cotta pot are the start of three little Thai pepper plants. Guess who those are for?

Progress! aka maybe I can stop hopping around like a rabbit now

This morning I can finally put a little weight on my injured ankle. The last couple of days have been pretty pathetic; either I've been crawling on all fours, scooching across the carpeted areas on my bum, having Willy piggyback me, or hopping on my good leg. I know I'm a rabbit per the Chinese zodiac, but come on! Pretty pathetic.

Gotta try to remember not to push it too much today, but it'll be nice to get some mobility back.

Getting old sucks

For any number of reasons, getting old sucks. But when your body starts betraying you it really blows. A couple of weeks ago I tweaked my back doing some simple yard work and had to take two weeks off from volleyball to heal. Of course, I did try going back too early initially and paid for it with sharp pains in my lower back.

Tonight was my first night back at our league after resting and the back felt fine. Then, less than a game and a half later, I rolled my ankle--badly. I've only rolled this bad once before, and that was probably more than five years ago. I walked off the court initially but now it's all swollen and can't really support my weight. Aaaaargh!!! Sooooo frustrating! All I want to do is play volleyball, is that too much to ask?

What color are our thumbs?

This is the question of the season. We decided to try our hand at planting some things this spring, mostly inspired by an Asian Pear tree we bought on a whim last weekend. We were out for a motorcycle ride on this great local stretch of road we found and decided to stop in this cute little nursery along the way. The staff told us that pears are great fruit trees to try; the words "more or less indestructible" were thrown out there, which is perfect for us.

So Friday night we got to work putting this guy in his permanent home. The spot we originally chose for him on one side of the house wasn't going to work since I realized it doesn't get more than a few hours of sun each day. And we didn't really want the fruit tree in the front yard, so we opted to move our existing dogwood tree from its current location and replace it with the Asian Pear tree. The dogwood had a bad winter the first year we were here and Willy's mom lopped off a bunch of the dead branches so it was looking a little sad to be in such a prime spot in the yard. So, we put the Asian Pear tree in that sun-soaked spot. Isn't it purty? Even if we don't get fruit eventually (it's possible we'll get them next year), it's still got pretty flowers.

We're still hoping that the dogwood recovers too, but it will take him a while to fill out again I think. He bloomed last year and he's started blooming this year too, so we'll see. Hopefully he doesn't throw a tantrum for losing his previous spot. He's still got a nice area by the side of the house now. Oh, and we learned that we have A LOT of rocks right under the surface of our soil. That made for some fun digging. I planted some astilbe bulbs earlier in the week too so hopefully I'll be showing off some green thumb pics later in the season and not bare, brown patches.

Happy Birthday, Willy!

It's been a busy but very fun weekend. Friday night I took Willy out for dinner at a nice local restaurant, No. 9 Park. We had some really delicious dishes, like prune-stuffed gnocchi with foie gras, hake (it's like cod), duck, and these two amazing desserts--an apple creme brulee and this liquid chocolate thing that I'm not even going to try to describe in writing. Suffice to say I stuffed myself silly (not that that's anything new). I just wish I had to brought his gift with me because it would have been perfect to give it to him while the table next to us was having their cheese course presented to them (Cheese, Gromit! Cheese!). We did have some laughs over the two really drunk, loud women at that table too. One of them actually almost fell over as they were leaving the restaurant. Klassy.

Saturday afternoon we invited some friends over for a BBQ and had a great time. We totally lucked out with the weather, our first 80+ degree days! It was a little scary inviting a bunch of people over for the first BBQ of the season since it's been kind of wet and rainy the last few weeks, but the weathermen ended up being right this time and we've had a gorgeous couple of days, officially transitioning from winter straight into summer. Typical no-spring New England.

That same night we went out for dinner with my family for our usual family birthday celebration, which is always fun. I couldn't eat though after all those hours of BBQing. Then my family decided to invite themselves over for BBQ leftovers tonight (Sunday) so we did some more socializing. I've got some serious cleaning up to do tomorrow.

Crocheted blankets

Recently I crocheted a bunch of blankets to give away as gifts to various friends and family. I think everyone's received their packages by now so I can finally post some pics of the projects.

I started out with baby blankets and sent these to two different friends, both of whom are due this summer. The green one turned out a little smaller than intended (~16.5" x 26.5") but I've been told it can still be used as a stroller blanket, which I hope is true. I gave it to the smaller couple thinking they might have a smaller baby :) The yellow blanket turned out a bit better at ~27" x 24.5".




Then I got to work on an adult-sized blanket for my sister as a birthday gift. She had asked when I would make one for her and I had enough lead time to make sure it was done on time. I gave it to her over the weekend and I think she really liked it.


I am totally addicted to crocheting at this point. I will say that it's a lot cheaper than my beading hobby, which I haven't picked up in months. It's also easier in that I don't need to come up with my own designs--I'm such a crafty poser, haha!

Hair donation pics

My friends Dave and Jo at Allegro Photography took some really fun before and after pictures for me of my hair donation process. What do you think?

Before:

During (yikes!):

After:

Restaurant Review: Mistral

We had a much belated "holiday party" date night over the weekend, courtesy of Willy's company. Every year they give us a stipend for a night out because they don't fly him back to headquarters for the company party. It's a nice little perk for us, and usually we use the money to have dinner and see a show but this year we decided to just have a really nice dinner with the $75pp budget.

We chose a restaurant called Mistral in the Back Bay and had a very tasty evening. Our first bit of good luck was finding a free parking spot only a block away from the restaurant--score! To put it in context for those of you in S.F., imagine getting a spot right in the financial district or finding a space in the Richmond or Sunset :)

I'll try to give quick reviews of what we had.

APPETIZERS
W: Mistral Winter Black Truffle Macaroni with Madeira & Parmesan ($32)
K: Seared Foie Gras with Confit of Duck in Brioche, Tart Wisconsin Cherries ($22)
Yeah, so Willy's app cost more than entrees do at a lot of restaurants. What better time to splurge on it though than when it's on someone else's dime? :) You could call it a fancy mac & cheese, but that wouldn't really do it justice. Who knew truffles were so flavor-packed? It's the first time either of us had tried them and they didn't disappoint. It wasn't as cheesy as a real mac & cheese is, either.

The foie gras and duck were delicious, though I could have done without the brioche which was a soft, doughy, stuffer that I mostly left untouched on the plate. The app was significant enough that I probably could have had it as a small entree. All I know is I was already pretty full after having just my appetizer, and that is soooo not like me. I guess it didn't help that the bread at the start of meal were these huge pieces and I just had to finish a whole slice :P

ENTREES
W: Herb Roasted Wild Striped Bass, Butter Poached Vegetables, Black Truffle Whipped Potato ($38)
K: Pan Roasted Native Cod, Maine Lobster & Asparagus Risotto, White Asparagus Veloute ($39)
Both of these were very good, though I think I slightly preferred Willy's dish. His potatoes were to die for, too. Must have been those truffles again! Seriously, even just a small taste of the potatoes were so flavorful...yummmm! And the bass was also very well done and yummy. The cod was perfectly cooked and slabs of it just slid off; it was much lighter in flavor than the bass, which isn't a bad thing. The risotto was very good, and I'd say overall my dish was very good, though not excellent. I put in a poor showing though as I was already so full that I could only eat about half of my entree--boo on me!

DESSERT
Vanilla Crème Brulée, Fresh Raspberries, Ginger Cookie ($10)
Even though we were stuffed of course we had to try a dessert. Every part of the creme brulee was delicious, including the ginger cookie bowl that the raspberries were sitting in and floating on top of the caramelized sugar of the creme brulee. I also had a cup of decaf coffee to go with it (why do restaurants have such a hard time bringing out the coffee and the dessert at close to the same time?), and the coffee was so, so good. It's the best cup I've had at a restaurant in a while. I probably should have asked them what it was. Great way to end a very good meal.